


The Sigil of His House

by twisted_sheets



Series: The Sigil of His House [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Canon is your warning, F/F, F/M, Hint of Character Death, M/M, Multi, Pairings to be added, This is an ASoIaF AU after all, well at least the AU canon is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:57:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twisted_sheets/pseuds/twisted_sheets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Taiga’s eighteenth name day, his House summons him back home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [BPS Character Battle](http://basketballpoetsociety.tumblr.com/). :D

 

“Kagami-kun, if you do not rein in your appetite, I am afraid we will not longer have enough money to last us for this week.”  
  
Taiga eyes longingly the skewers of meat and onion and mushrooms roasting on a makeshift fire pit at the stall near him, mouth salivating at the sight of their hot juices dripping and sizzling on the coals, smelling strongly of herbs and spices and a hint of hot peppers, the scents of home he didn’t know he missed. He turns away from the delicious sight with an annoyed huff and continues walking.  
  
“Don’t worry, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko says from beside him, keeping up with practiced ease with Taiga’s long strides, nimbly dodging the frantic and quick-stepped Pentoshi who often do not notice Kuroko in their path. Nigou usually takes care of those, but they left him in the inn with the rest of their retinue to guard their possessions. “I won’t let you starve. If the money comes today, we’ll visit the bazaar again. It is your eighteenth name day, and Kagami-kun deserves to treat himself a little.”  
  
“Nah. It’s fine, Kuroko. We’ll just eat at the inn.” Money is tight, that is true, and they still need to book passage to Braavos. “Still don’t know why the money is late, though. It’s never been late before.”  
  
“Perhaps Kagami-kun’s appetite has depleted the Treasury.”  
  
Taiga tugs Kuroko’s hair, grinning when Kuroko yelps. “Very funny. My brother’s hardly going to let me do that, and my aunt would probably skin me alive if I did.”  
  
Taiga's brows furrow at the thought of his brother. A nearly a year into this trip that took him and his companions from Dorne to Tyrosh to Myr to now Pentos, his brother had responded little to the letters Taiga dutifully sent to him. Taiga knows his brother is probably too preoccupied with other matters to bother to write back, but. It was his brother’s idea to send Taiga to this trip to Essos, to the Free Cities and beyond, a “gift in celebration of his knighthood.”  
  
Not that Taiga minds, being sent away from his home, not when he’s seen sights he never thought he would behold with his own eyes, the opulent and towering manses of the Free Cities, the thunderous Dothraki horde as the passed through Pentos on their way to the grassy lands of the Dothraki sea, fire dancers and spellsingers working their magic to an awestruck crowd, stalls of intricate armor and weaponry that gleamed in the sun, lovely and deadly. He devoured food he’d never thought he’d eat, locust pies and green noodles, mouthwatering sweets and cakes soaked in honey and full of fruits and cream, hot, spiced creations he never knew the names of, that burned his throat and made his eyes water and numbed his lips, and drunk pear brandy and sweet wines that warmed his blood and belly and made him see stars and tasted like the ambrosia of the gods.  
  
 _Let this trip serve as your rite of passage to adulthood_ , Taiga’s brother had written, in neat, firm strokes, in his letter proposing this trip to him. His aunt had been wary to let him go, but in the end agreed, though she sent with him as companions Kuroko and several knights Taiga was thankfully acquainted with, to travel in relative anonymity in Essos in plain clothes and armor and secret names.  
  
“Perhaps there will be a message awaiting for us in the inn when we arrive,” Kuroko says, once again diving his thoughts with uncanny accuracy. Taiga only grunts and nods in acknowledgment, but the thought makes his steps lighter and quicker.  
  
When they arrive at their inn, a tiny but comfortable one tucked away from the madness of the caravans and bazaars, in a quiet street full of old lemon trees, a message did await them, though not one of parchment and ink.  
  
“A messenger has arrived for you,” Ser Teppei tells him, when he meets them by the inn’s door. His usual cheery, genial demeanor is replaced with one of narrow eyes and a dark frown, and Taiga’s heart beat quickens a little at the sight. “He wouldn’t give his name, only this.” He hands Taiga a velvet pouch. “There’s a ring inside. Shun says it isn’t poisoned, so it should be safe to touch.”  
  
Taiga puts his fingers inside, his thumb brushing over that seal that bears the familiar grooves of the sigil of his house. Despite his increasing disquiet, he manages a calm nod. “It’s all right. Where is he?”  
  
It has been many years, and the man sitting indolently at the chair, one leg propped up on the armrest, may be dressed in plain tunic and weathered armor, his face hidden in the darkness of the hood of his cloak, but Taiga recognizes the way he held himself, his quick, impatient swiftness as he rose to his feet when Taiga comes inside the room. How many times have Taiga watched him, admired and envied him for his feral grace, the incredible strength and power imbued in his every movement, in his very scent? Taiga speaks the hooded man’s name even before he pulls off the hood to reveal himself, showing dark blue eyes and midnight blue hair. “Ser Daiki.”  
  
Beside Taiga, Kuroko stills, as well as Ser Teppei, no doubt realizing who the man before them is, and what the implications of his presence could be. Ser Daiki bows perfunctory, almost rudely, but Taiga doesn’t care, his manners are not important. “What are you doing here?”  
  
“You’ve grown, brat,” Ser Daiki says, voice low, almost mocking, but with odd fondness, as his eyes sweep over Taiga from head to toe. For a moment, his gaze falls on Ser Teppei and Kuroko, lips curling to a frown, before turning back to Taiga with a smirk. “Not quite so scrawny anymore, are you?”  
  
Taiga ignores his jibes, and repeats his next question, more firmly this time. “What are you doing here, ser? You’re far from King’s Landing and your sworn duties.” Taiga’s heart races at his next question. “Is my brother all right? Has something happened?” For what else would bring the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard so far from his King if not for dire circumstances?  
  
Taiga's brother the King is an able, gifted ruler, and anything grievous happening to him chills Taiga’s blood. The realm could fall into chaos without him, and with no heir still, succession could go awry.  
  
The smirk vanishes from Ser Daiki’s lips, to be replaced with sudden seriousness. “His Grace is well, hale and hearty the last time I saw him. I’m here to escort you back home.”  
  
“To Sunspear?”  
  
“No.” He pulls out a scrolled up parchment from his cloak and hands it to Taiga. “His Grace, King Seijuro, commands you, his brother, Prince Taiga, to return to King’s Landing, to the Red Keep. His Grace thinks it is time for the Prince of Summerhall to fulfill his duties as befits his rank as Prince of the Blood.”

 


	2. [Interlude] Ficlets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ficlets written for Basketball Poet Society and in my tumblr.

**Title** : [_**yet always back returning**_](http://basketballpoetsociety.tumblr.com/post/77543678780/otp-battle-yet-always-back-returning-kagakuro)

**Summary:** **Kagami expresses concerns about coming back to King’s Landing with Kuroko.**

When Taiga walks back into their room in the inn, weary and troubled from his talk with Ser Daiki, he finds Kuroko starting to pack up his things into a bag, Nigou helping along by bringing Kuroko items of clothing and other things with his mouth.

“What are you doing?” Taiga blurts out, his chest constricting with sudden anxiety at the sight. “Why are you packing?” Where was Kuroko going? Is Kuroko leaving?

Kuroko turns guileless blue eyes on him, Nigou doing the same. “Are we not leaving soon, Kagami-kun? For King’s Landing?” When Taiga nods, a little numbly, Kuroko continues, “I am simply preparing my things for our travel. It is best not to leave packing at the last moment.”

“Oh.” The ache within his chest eases a little at Kuroko’s use of ‘we’. “I, uh, see.” He scratches his head, feeling a little awkward and nervous. “So you’re coming with me back to King’s Landing?”

“Did Kagami-kun think I would not go?” Kuroko’s eyes narrows, lips curling to a frown. “Or does Kagami-kun not want me to go with him?”

Taiga shook his head. “No, I want you to come. It’s just that–” Taiga lets out a huff of breath. “I thought you wouldn’t want to go, for a moment back there. I thought you were going to go off on your–”

“Why would Kagami-kun think that?” Kuroko looks a little angry now, and Nigou gives Taiga a disapproving expression. “Have I not promised to go where Kagami-kun goes? I–”

“I know that, idiot!” He reaches out and messes Kuroko’s hair, grinning a little at Kuroko’s disgruntled expression, before turning serious. “It’s just…King’s Landing is a different place from any of the places we’ve been. You…might not like it there as much as you did at home at Sunspear or Starfall or at the cities we went to in Essos.”

“Isn’t King’s Landing home to Kagami-kun?”

Home? King’s Landing? Perhaps in his younger years, it was, in some way. While his father the King was a distant, intimidating man who rarely paid attention to his second son (why would he, when he already had his perfect heir — _Taiga should have been born a girl_ ), except for curt queries to his maester or the master of arms (and never directly to him) about the progress of his studies or training, Taiga had the warmth of his mother the Queen and of his aunt Princess Alex, their loving embraces and showers of kisses and pinching of cheeks. He had Tatsuya’s companionship and friendship, their shared adventures around the secret ways of the Red Keep and the nearby woods. Most of all he had his older brother, the Crown Prince Seijuro’s stern guidance and steady (but subtle) affection, his brother’s watchful eyes always ensuring he was well cared of, well behaved and well brought up in their House’s history and traditions, as one of the blood of the dragon should be.

But all of that had changed when his Father died and his brother became King.

And now here he is, summoned back to return to a place he had not been to in nearly more than eight years. “My brother, the King–” Taiga sighs, suddenly weary. “They haven’t told me why I’m being sent back.” He’d tried to get answers from Ser Daiki, but the bastard hadn’t been forthcoming with any further explanation. Why summon him back now, after years of seemingly forgetting about his existence? “I don’t know what’s waiting for us there when we arrive, or how much things have changed.”

After their father’s death, his ‘Sei-nii’ became the distant His Grace the King Seijuro, First of His Name, with little time for Taiga and his ‘childish’ concerns, his eyes now cold and eerie. His mother and Alex had left to return to Dorne, where his mother eventually became its Princess. Tatsuya had gone as well, to serve as squire to some lord in the Vale. Taiga was left in the care of men and women who were far too eager to have under their tutelage the Prince of Summerhall, their ambitions obvious even to Kagami’s young eyes. Though his goodsister, his brother’s wife, the new Queen, Satsuki, had befriended and was kind to him, and her cousin Ser Daiki tolerated Taiga’s dogged efforts to learn swordsmanship from him and was Taiga’s occasional confidante, Taiga felt himself to be an unwanted (and unwilling) guest in what had been once his home, surrounded by strangers that made Taiga uncomfortable and suspicious.

“The people there aren’t like in Dorne.” Dorne, with its exuberant people and its wonderful Water Gardens, bright and open, so different from the solemnity and oppressiveness of the walls of the Red Keep. “Most of the people we’d see would be nobles.” _Ambitious ones_ , Taiga thinks, _who want to be close to power_. “They’re not very friendly, and they’re _always_ watching you.”

In King’s Landing Taiga has no doubt his and his companions’ freedom would be limited. Everyone would be trying to find out who they are, how they would fit in whatever schemes or plots they would have. Kuroko, most of all, would be under much scrutiny. Kuroko and Nigou has always been a strange sight, and the presence of what appeared to be a landless nobody in the Prince of Summerhall’s retinue would draw whispers and questions.

“That is only if they would notice me in the first place, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko tells him with a small smile.

“My brother would notice you.” His brother’s strange eyes missed _nothing_ ; even Kuroko’s queer lack of presence would not stop his brother from taking note of Kuroko. Taiga grows cold with fear at the thought. What would his brother do, if he finds out what Kuroko is? What Kuroko is to him? His brother isn’t an unreasonable man, and yet… “I don’t like this, Kuroko. I don’t like going back there,” he confessed.

“But you must, Kagami-kun. It is your birthright, and your brother the King commands you to. Will you disobey him?”

“No,” he says immediately. “No, I won’t.” _The dragon does not run_ , Taiga remembers. “It’s just,” Taiga begins, reaching out again to gently brush his knuckles against Kuroko’s cheek, “I don’t think you’d be very comfortable there.”

Kuroko takes his hand and grips it tight. “Kagami-kun is sweet to be so concerned, but it doesn’t matter. I will still come with Kagami-kun, wherever he goes. After all–”

“A shadow cannot exist without its light.”

\------

**Title:** [_**Favor**_  ](http://basketballpoetsociety.tumblr.com/post/79714689385/challenge-no-63-favor-kagakuro)

**Summary:** Kagami needs a favor from Kuroko. For luck.

“A favor, Kagami-kun?” Kuroko frowns. “Is that not something Kagami-kun should ask from the ladies? I am sure they–”

“I don’t want their favors, I want _your_ s!” Taiga bursts out. He feels his face grow redder in from embarrassment. Why must Kuroko make things difficult _all the time_? Didn’t Kuroko know how hard had it been for Taiga to summon the nerve to even _ask_? “I just need something of yours. For luck. For the jousts. Your gloves or some token or a handkerchief or some–”

Kuroko’s lips are soft against his nose — it’s a brief, chaste touch, but it still sends a jolt of pleasant warmth throughout Kagami’s body, and effectively cuts off the babble from his mouth.

Kagami stares at Kuroko with wide eyes, his heart thumping hard within his chest. So surprised was he that he didn’t feel Kuroko pressing something to his (suddenly nerveless) hands until Kuroko’s cool hands leave his. When he looks down, he sees Kuroko’s fur glove clenched around his fingers.

“Good luck, Kagami-kun.”

\------

**Title:** [_**Of love and beauty**_  ](http://basketballpoetsociety.tumblr.com/post/80371383174/challenge-no-63-of-love-and-beauty-kagakuro)

**Summary:** Continuation of _Favors_. After the end of the jousts, Kagami searches for Kuroko in the godswood.

It did not take much of a search to find Kuroko; Taiga has always known where to find Kuroko, even in the earlier days of their companionship. It seems to be a knowledge deeply ingrained within him, almost instinctual.

The godswood of the Red Keep is not far from the tourney grounds, just overlooking the Blackwater Rush. Taiga arrives there by foot, having left his horse (as well as his armor) beside his pavilion and with his men, carrying only his sword and two cloaks. Surely the godswood would be the only place Kuroko would go to. It is far away from the maddening cacophony of noises of the tourney and the prying eyes of the nobility and common folk, a perfect haven for someone like Kuroko.

Kuroko is kneeling on the ground beneath the godswood’s heart tree, a huge weirwood with a bark as white and as unsettling as bone, its leaves as dark as blood, shaped like the hands men, one of the rare few weirwoods that survived the purge of the First Men and the Andals in the south. Kuroko’s own hands and forehead are pressed against the enormous trunk, just beneath the tree’s melancholy face, as if in prayer. Under the dappled golden sunlight of the late afternoon, Kuroko looks almost ethereal, otherworldly.

Taiga slows his steps, suddenly wary. He’d seen Kuroko in that setting several times before in the past, and all those times Kuroko’s reaction to being disrupted had been…disquieting. Taiga hesitates and briefly thinks of turning back, before finally gathering courage and speaking with a low, hushed voice, “Kuroko?”

For a moment, he thought Kuroko hadn’t heard him. Then, Kuroko turns to Taiga, eyes fluttering open. To Taiga’s relief, Kuroko’s eyes are as wide and blue as usual, and not the milky white of trances before. “Kagami-kun?” Kuroko stands, up, slowly, brushing away stray leaves that had clung to him. “Has the tourney ended?”

“Yes.” Shuffling his feet, he takes out Kuroko’s glove from his pockets. “I’m, uh, here to return your glove.” Taiga feels himself grow warm with sudden embarrassment at the memory of him begging Kuroko for a favor to wear. “It…was very helpful.”

_Very helpful_. Such an understatement. With Kuroko’s favor tucked into his shirt, Taiga became unstoppable, unhorsing and defeating men with far more experienced and (perhaps) more skill than he, moving and fighting as if he was possessed with some sort of divine benediction. In the end, it had been only him and Ser Daiki left to claim the championship.

“I’m glad Kagami-kun found my glove helpful.” Kuroko’s fingers are cold when they brushed against his own, but Kuroko’s smile is warm and fond. “Did Kagami-kun win?”

“Yes.” A shift in the seat, a sudden turn of the wrist, and Taiga had Ser Daiki flying from his horse and crashing in the ground, at last bringing to an end their lengthy battle. Between the two them, Taiga and the Commander of the Kingsguard had broken ten lances and shattered three shields, a remarkable feat that had left the crowds’ breaths caught in their throats with awe and excitement.

“That is…wonderful, Kagami-kun.” Kuroko’s mouth suddenly curves down to a worried frown. “Who did you crown as Queen of Love and Beauty, then?”

“Satsu–ah, I mean, Her Grace the Queen,” he mumbles in reply, averting his gaze, unable to look directly to Kuroko’s ever curious eyes.

The events after his win may be a blur now to Taiga, but he remembers well what he felt then when his brother the king declared him the champion: Taiga’s heart near bursting with joy and pride, and desperate with the need to share this triumphant moment to the one who made this all possible, to the one he’d long acknowledge to matter most: Kuroko.

Had Kuroko been present among the stands, Taiga is sure he would have damned it all and crowned Kuroko before the crowds, crowned Kuroko with the wreath of blood red black roses of the tourney and damned the consequences. But Kuroko was not there, and returning to his senses, Taiga had crowned instead as Queen of Love and Beauty his goodsister, to his brother’s (surprising) pleasure and Ser Daiki’s fury.

“She must have been happy to have received the crown. That was good of you, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko says, voice cool and calm as always, turning away from him. “Shall we go back to the tourney grounds? They may be looking–”

“Wait.” His hand curl around Kuroko’s elbow. Kuroko looks at him with questioning eyes, which then widen when Taiga pulls the crown of blood red roses from under one cloak.

“My goodsister gave it back to me soon after I crowned her.” He’d been so surprised, to find the queen in his pavilion. She pressed the crown into his hands, kissed his knuckles, and then smiled, sad and sweet. “It was very kind of you to give this to me, my lord,” she had said, eyes bright, “but I do not believe you’d truly meant this for me.”

Before he could speak, to ask her how she’d known, his goodsister only put a finger on his lips, shook her head, and silently swept out of his pavilion, leaving Taiga baffled and very grateful.

“So, here it is.” With utmost care, as if Kuroko was a skittish deer about to bolt at the slightest noise, Taiga places the crown of roses around Kuroko’s head, where it truly meant to be. “For you, Kuroko, the Queen of Love and Beauty.”

“I am no queen,” Kuroko says quietly. A light blush stains Kuroko’s cheeks, belying the anger in Kuroko’s voice. “And I certainly have no beauty to–”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Taiga says with a teasing grin. The dark colors of the crown are stark and strange against Kuroko’s lightness, but it nonetheless belongs there. “You may not be _the_ queen, but you’re….pretty enough, I suppose, and,” Taiga leans down until their forehead are touching, eyes almost level with each other’s, his thumb brushing against Kuroko’s hot cheek, “you certainly have _my_ love.”

Kuroko’s glorious sky blue eyes stare at him with strange intensity. “Kagami-kun is such a foolish romantic,” Kuroko says with a charming little huff of exasperation.

“Maybe,” Taiga says with a warm chuckle, playfully brushing their noses together. Then, with infinite gentleness, he cups the back of Kuroko’s head, and pulls Kuroko to a firm kiss on lips.

(They kiss again and again beneath the heart tree, until their mouths are as red as the roses on Kuroko’s head, until their lips are swollen and the color of the weirwood leaves and the blood pounding in their veins.)

\------

**Title:[ ** _I’ll never burn as brilliantly as you_** **_  
_**](http://thebaneofhonor.tumblr.com/post/93591387690/ficlet-ill-never-burn-as-brilliantly-as-you-asoiaf)****_  
_****Summary:** Taiga’s birthday presents have been interesting recently.  
  
Title is from [lalage’s](http://lalage.tumblr.com/) brilliant and hauntingly beautiful poem-comic, _2[5 Lives](http://s2b2.livejournal.com/142934.html?nojs=1)_.

On his seventeenth name day, Taiga receives a dragon egg.

Solid and heavy, the egg was the size of his head, its stony scales as black as shadow and veined in pale blue, a jewel of incomparable worth and beauty, retrieved, the merchant said, from the shadowy world of Asshai. Despite his misgivings, Taiga held it close to his body, nestled in the crook of one arm, while one hand grips it tight, afraid he’d drop it. It was warm to touch, from body heat or the sun he did not know. “It’s not … alive is it?”

The merchant laughs, and shakes his head. “No dragon would hatch from it,” he says in high Valyrian, flashing Taiga a smile full of gold teeth. “It is merely a stone now, though a very pretty one. A fitting thanks, for your help.”

Taiga looks over at Kuroko, who now stood beside him, staring at the egg with an unreadable expression, before finally reaching out and touching it with careful fingertips, then pulling away quickly, as if burned. “It is indeed lovely, Magister,” Kuroko says, turning to the merchant with that polite, impersonal look he wore with strangers. “Thank you very much.”

Kuroko never touched the egg again. Taiga never asked him why. Perhaps Kuroko found it too disquieting. But what could the egg do? It is dead, after all.

\------

On his twentieth name day, Taiga gains a dragon.

It flaps to him from its nest of burnt bones and ashes, a tiny black thing, its thin leathery wings and gleaming scales veined in blue, tendrils of smoke rising from its body, and settles on his arm, sharp talons digging into his skin.

The dragon cocks its head to one side, pale blue eyes bright and curious as it looks at Taiga, before clawing to his shoulder and curling its long, sinuous body around his neck, as if it were a cat. Behind him Taiga could hear people muttering, screaming, in fear and awe, but he ignores them, ignores them all, for the dragon.

His hand cups its head, and the creature bumps against his palm, growling. “Kuro,” Kagami says after a moment. The dragon raises its long neck to the sky and opens it mouth, hissing out a dark flame. “We’ll name you Kuro.”

 


End file.
